Monday, 30 May 2011

Two things conspired to reduce the trap list this morning. Firstly a school-boy mothing error on my part - I couldn't be arsed to get up early enough to empty the traps before the Robins and Blackbirds had cleared anything from outside the boxes. Secondly, it was pissing down making my efforts to catch the odd escaping geometer ineffective (as in no effort as I was stood in the shed trying to keep dry). Still the overall catch was pretty good with a few new for the year, and the new 20W CFL actinic held its own again.

Mottled Rustic - yes it's dull but the chances of me having a photo of any given species seems to be inversely proportional to their abundance or attractiveness, so I'm trying to get a few more common ones sorted this year.

Thursday, 26 May 2011

Conditions tonight are not great for mothing. It was a bit dull and showery today, and it's cloudy but windy tonight and a bit cool. Nevertheless I'm running the traps as Im keen to see whether my newest light source attracts anything. Obviously it'll need a few outings before I pass judgement. It's a 20W compact fluorescent actinic, ostensibly with the same output/power as 120W actinic. It certainly seems bright for a small bulb, and has the advantage of no control gear ...

Since I got home from work and unpackage the bulb, I've been waiting for the night to fall ....

Wednesday, 25 May 2011

This week, I have mostly been listening to ..... YES. I have decided to stop trying to hide my liking for this overly long, ridiculously complicated and slightly hippy 70s progressive stuff with a squeaky Lancastrian singing. Or at least I like the Fragile through to Going for the One period.

Tuesday, 24 May 2011

Every now and then you see a bird in some odd out of context place. A few weeks ago I managed to add Red-legged Partridge to the garden list when I could hear one singing in the evening. It sounded close and I assumed it was in the nearest fields to us (out of sight behind other houses though). Tonight I went out for a quick cycle down the lane, and coming home I was confronted by the very odd sight of a Red-legged Partridge singing from the apex of a house roof in the middle of the estate. Still out of sight from the garden mind. I also heard a Yellowhammer much closer to the housing than usual, but sadly not audible from the garden above the M1 road noise.

I haven't run the garden traps since Friday night, mainly due to the high winds and a bit of apathy following the excellent Charnwood Lodge session. Here's a belated summary. The traps are out tonight as the wind has dropped almost completely, though it is clear and likely to be very cool later on.

Monday, 23 May 2011

It's not often that Isabelle gets a mention on this blog, mainly as she is old enough to have independance and express preference and opinion. This usually means 'no, I don't want to come out with you walking around some boring reserve looking for wildlife things as I'd rather go into town with my mates and have good time being, like, you know - young' ...

One thing she does enjoy and get involved with though is the local youth drama group. They do a couple of invariably good shows a year, either a properly staged play, a sketch show or some musical stuff. On Saturday night they did a show presenting various numbers from west end musicals and Isabelle had a couple of solos. I think she was a bit surprised at the response from everyone who spoke to her and us after the shows, but her rendition of Castle on a Cloud as Cosette from Les Miserables was pretty good I'd say.

Sunday, 22 May 2011

After transcibing and integrating our lists, the overall catch from our Chanrwood Lodge jaunt turned out to be a very respectable species total including many new for the year. It was cool and clear with a bit of a breeze, but stayed dry throughout. We ran a 125W MV light over a sheet for a short while inbetween setting up the traps and topping up the gennies for the night before heading home for some kip, returning just after dawn to empty the 12 traps (8 x 125W MV, 2 x 250W MV, 1 x 250W metal halide and 1 x actinic/tungsten combo).

Saturday, 21 May 2011

Another overnight mothing effort last night, this time at Charnwood Lodge with Adrian Russell. Lots of things in pots to photograph, and 12 traps worth of digital dictaphone to transcribe. Overall species mix was pretty good though numbers were low. Ahead of all that it's worth mentioning that we managed to record one of our targets, though we were probably a week or two early for the usual VC55 flight seasons for the others (Glaucous Shears, Beautiful Snout and Red-necked Footman). The one we did record was this ...

Fox Moth

Okay it's a drab grey-brown looking female with not much charisma, but in VC55 terms this is a mega. We recorded it here in 2006 which was the first VC55 record since the 70's, and despite it's nationally common status we get it nowhere else.

Friday, 20 May 2011

Had a very relaxing amble down the lane yesterday evening - it took me almost 2 hours as every few steps I stopped to net something, look at something or photograph something. Lots of Cocksfoot Moths flitting about, along with fewer Mompha epilobiella, Parornix anglicella, Celypha lacunana, Syndemis musculana, Epiblema cynosbatella and this ..

Yellow-tail

Lots of beetles too, with Common Malachite Beetles all along the lane, loads of Green Dock Beetle larvae destroying their foodplant, Chrysolina polita, Cardinal Beetle, 2-Spot, 7-Spot and 14-Spot ladybirds. Even more bugs - the vast majority of which were the nymphs of the common grass feeding species Leptopterna dolabrata, plus Stenodema laevigata, Red and Black Froghopper, and this wacky looking but very common leafhopper ..

Potato Leafhopper

I grabbed a few flowering grasses to try and ID - pretty hopeless effort to be honest. I got Barren Brome sorted quite easily, and I think this is Meadow Foxtail, but otherwise more work required ..

Flowering plants included some Bittersweet across a ditch that I couldn't get near enough to photograph, some White Campion and these ..

Tuesday, 17 May 2011

The garden mothing was markedly improved last night, not least due to the aforeposted garden macro tick. Can't explain why the actinic/compact fluorescent outperformed the MV so well, and it was this trap that brought in the Puss Moth. Hopefully the numbers will stay up; soon approaching the time of year when trap reports will be summarised to firsts for the garden/year, biggest counts and other highlights.

Sunday, 15 May 2011

Found this down the lane today during a very brief stop en route from dropping Alex off at a party.

Common Malachite Beetle

Probably the smartest thing I've seen all week. Garden mothing has remained rubbish on every attempt. I've rounded it up here more out of some odd sense of duty rather than it being interesting. It can only get better!

Played in bands, drank some beer, went birding, started twitching, played poker, drank some beer, photographed moths, stopped twitching, watched some football, stopped birding, drank some beer, started birding, and somewhere along the way got married and created three great children. Not necessarily in that order. Please have a look at the first posting to this BLOG for a slightly more detailed introduction to my background.